Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

UF Researcher: Teachers' Nonverbal Clues Affect Students' Performance

Date:

January 25, 1999

Source:

University Of Florida

Summary:

Children are quick studies when it comes to their teachers' body language, and the messages they get about their teachers' feelings toward them can have a profound effect on their classroom performance, a University of Florida researcher has found.

Related Articles

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Children are quick studies when it comes to their teachers' body language, and the messages they get about their teachers' feelings toward them can have a profound effect on their classroom performance, a University of Florida researcher has found.

"Not only what we teach, but how we teach and the learning community we create in the classroom, are going to become the evidence for not only what you think of the students but what they think of themselves," said Vicky Zygouris-Coe, an assistant professor in UF's College of Education. Zygouris-Coe did the research for her dissertation at UF.

Zygouris-Coe found that students often interpret things such as their teachers' body language, the order in which they are called on and the intensity with which they are listened to as signs of their teachers' feelings toward them. Many students even cast a skeptical eye on teachers' compliments, she said.

"That was really interesting to find that young children would be analyzing it that much," she said. "A lot of children said, ‘She says I'm really good, but does she mean it?' This raises a lot of implications for teachers."

Jim Doud, a former president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the chair of UF's educational leadership department, said children pay more attention to nonverbal clues than many people think.

"My observation of kids says that they find nonverbal clues more realistic than verbal clues," he said. "The evidence is strong that when they believe that their teachers feel they can do something, they're more likely to achieve."

Zygouris-Coe studied 60 students in two fourth-grade classes at a local elementary school for 5 ½ months to gather data for her dissertation. She observed the classroom environment at least twice a week and gave the children written response questions during the class "journal" time four times a month. The questions were open-ended statements such as, ‘My teacher thinks that I am . . .," and the students were encouraged to write several paragraphs to explain their answers.

Each question session was followed a few days later with individual interviews in which Zygouris-Coe asked some of the children to expand on their answers.

"The results showed that children are very actively involved in what happens in the classroom," she said. "They are actively involved in their interactions, and they actively interpret those interactions."

One of the most important things teachers can do is to make an effort to know their students as well as possible, Doud said.

"If you don't have a sense of what your students are capable of and what their interests are, you'll have a hard time keeping an open line of communication," he said.

Positive nonverbal feedback from teachers -- in the form of making eye contact, paying attention when students speak and letting them know that you understand their strengths and weaknesses -- can make all the difference in the world in removing barriers to the learning process.

"I hope that this will make teachers a bit more aware of how children interpret what happens in the classroom," Zygouris-Coe said. "I definitely recommend to teachers to give very specific feedback to children, not necessarily about every aspect of their behavior, but to make frequent attempts to let children know what they think about their progress, their behavior and other specific elements of their lives."

Parents also can help their children get as much as possible out of their learning experience by encouraging them to share their concerns and talk openly with their teachers, Zygouris-Coe said. Parents also should help children see their teachers in a positive light.

If teachers take the time to listen to how their students feel and think about how their actions might affect students' perspectives, the classroom learning environment could be greatly improved, Zygouris-Coe said.

"If we really want to improve community in the classroom and learn how to better reach our students, we have to see learning through our students' perspectives," she said.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University Of Florida. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

More From ScienceDaily

More Mind & Brain News

Featured Research

Mar. 3, 2015 — Why do people shake hands? A new study suggests one of the reasons for this ancient custom may be to check out each other's odors. Even if we are not consciously aware of this, handshaking may ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — It appears that stress markers in unemployed people can be found, independent of smoking, alcohol consumption and overweight/obesity. Results from a study suggest that long-term unemployment may be ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Doctors write millions of prescriptions a year for drugs to calm the behavior of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. But non-drug approaches actually work better, and carry ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Briefly counseling college students on the dangers of binge drinking is effective in lowering heavy drinking levels among many students, but only temporarily. Three out of four will be right back ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Loneliness brought about by the death of a spouse can trigger a wider network of depression-like symptoms, a study has found, but authors suggest that doctors are often too quick to attribute these ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Family Based Interpersonal Psychotherapy (FB-IPT) is more effective in treating preadolescent children with depression compared to child-centered therapy (CCT), a recent study has found. ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Everyone worries about losing their memory as they grow older—memory loss remains one of the most common complaints of the elderly. But the molecular reasons behind the processes remain unclear, ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — A strong link has been made between subthreshold manic episodes and likelihood of developing bipolar disorder in children of parents with bipolar disorder. The study’s findings could improve ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — A newly published study is the first to report an association between bisphenol-A (BPA), a common plasticizer used in a variety of consumer food and beverage containers, with autism spectrum disorder ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — On Feb. 26, a picture of a cocktail dress originally uploaded to the blog Tumblr swept the Internet and managed to divide the population over a simple question: What color is the dress? Some viewers ... full story

Related Stories

Mar. 2, 2015 — A new video assessment tool that can inform teacher selection and hiring has implications for education reform, a new study concludes. The researchers say there is a growing focus as part of ... full story

Feb. 11, 2015 — A new study has found that teachers who report having more symptoms of depression had classrooms that were of lesser quality, and that students in these classrooms had fewer performance gains. ... full story

Jan. 23, 2015 — Family members, teachers and peers can play different roles in shaping Spanish-speaking children's school readiness and English skills that are vital to children's academic success, ... full story

Apr. 5, 2014 — Despite a call for the use of a science teaching method called argumentation, teachers in some schools report student abilities and testing pressures restrict the use of this new practice. ... full story

Dec. 16, 2010 — Challenging students take up more of their teachers' time -- and the difference between a tougher student and an easier one appears to be genetic, according to a new study. The study looked at ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.